The Shakespeare Birthday Party
In this podcast we will read and discuss all of William Shakespeare’s plays over the course of a year, starting and ending on the Bard’s birthday. Together we’ll explore the big questions the plays put on the table and the poetry that makes those questions so human. Along the way we’ll be joined by poets, scholars, playwrights, and actors who can help us celebrate the poet whose influence continues to resound loudest over the Western world. Happy birthday, Shakespeare!
Episodes
27 episodes
King John
In which Grace and Danny discuss grief, weak leadership, and how three lions are not necessarily better than none.
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37:19
Love’s Labor’s Lost
In which Grace and Danny discuss Ken Branagh, the good of knowing the end before you’ve begun, and the education of women’s eyes.
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37:19
King Lear
In which Grace and Danny discuss prodigal fathers, Lady Fortune, and total, abject misery.
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42:36
Richard II
In which Grace and Danny discuss divine right of kings, betrayal, and the crusades.
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27:15
Measure for Measure
In which Grace and Danny discuss the Divine Comedy and Blackadder’s Russian codpiece—always terrifies the clergy, as Enid—I mean, Edmund—says!
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19:09
All’s Well That Ends Well
In which Grace and Danny discuss Cole Porter, Newland Archer (The Age of Innocence) [Edith Wharton], and Jeeves and Wooster. As one does.
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37:28
Henry VI, 1-3!
It’s a special triple episode following the ignominious and scholarly demise of Henry VI.
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29:53
Coriolanus
In which Grace and Danny discuss the tripartite soul, Ralph Fiennes’ hair, and the loneliness of dragons.
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38:39
Henry V
In which Grace and Danny discuss honor, tax evasion, strange wooing, and the dogs of war.
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36:51
Twelfth Night
In which Grace and Danny discuss bears, Dwight Schrute, and the journey of the Magi.
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21:35
The Taming of the Shrew
In which Grace and Danny discuss Christopher Sly, Jacob and Laban, and the resonance of names.
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30:46
Romeo and Juliet
In which Grace and Danny discuss the Fall, plague, the Michael Scott story (what did Jan say?), and the founding of Rome.
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36:50
Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra
Double episode! In which Grace and Danny discuss honor, John Lithgow, and the glory of Rome.
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30:33
The Merry Wives of Windsor
In which Grace and Danny discuss the exotic power of the potato, the origins of Bilbo, and the lovable reprobates of literature.
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22:26
Henry IV, Part 2
In which Grace and I revisit Falstaff, consider the merits of Hal, and delight in Mistress Quickly.
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18:18
Henry IV, Part One
In which Grace and Danny discuss monarchs, wastrel sons, philosopher reprobates, and Baloo the Bear.
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25:32
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
In which Grace and Danny discuss true love, Rene Girard, literary walkoffs (Zoolander style), and big Geoff Chaucer.
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41:49
Pericles
In which Grace and Danny delve into bordellos, the world’s worst luck, piracy (two kinds), and Pixar.
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26:42
The Merchant of Venice
In which Grace and I discuss justice, mercy, practical jokes, usury, and Al Pacino.
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49:43
Richard III
In which Grace and I discuss the strangeness of the boar: his methods of seduction, his overweening (and overwhelming) pride, and his complete disregard for eternity.
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29:56